RV culture, revolt!

In our recent travels, Jason and I had the unfortunate experience of becoming familiar with the world of RV Parks. Unless you are a millionaire, hope to heaven you don't have to do the same. Let us stand as a beacon of warning to you: avoid them like the plague. Go to state park camp sights if at all feasible. Find pullouts along the road. When you're in the middle of civilization, even seek out the loving, plastic, made-in-China arms of Wal-Mart and her free parking lot. But don't stay in RV Parks.

Number one, they are very proud of the skinny little strip of gravel they're going to let you park on for one night. So proud, in fact, that they will charge you upwards of $40 or $50 to do so ($3 off with an AARP discount). And you, my friend, are providing your own shelter, your own linens, your own maid service, your own continental breakfast, your own t.v. Now they are letting you plug in to their electricity, which we can estimate to cost them, oh, maybe 65 cents for the night. And yes, you can hook into their water and sewer if you choose to, and you can use their bath-house, again, if you want to. But everyone parking there already has this stuff in their house on wheels. So all together, the cost to the Park has got to be less than $5 a night, TOPS. That is my main qualm. It makes no sense to charge so heavily, and furthermore, why the RV community is not outraged at this. But I'll go on, for good measure.

Number two, RV Parks don't like riff-raff, and that most definitely includes tent-dwellers - those wretched, good for nothing kids that want to stick up a tent and make this place look like a stinkin' hippy camp. Number three, RV Park owners have a problem with certain dog breeds - in our case, the rottweiler. That is, all parks but one in Arizona whose welcome packet read, "We don't care what your breed of dog is, as long as it's on a leash and well-behaved. We don't tolerate aggressive behavior from any dog, regardless of its breed." That reasoning impressed us a lot, but trust me, it was exceedingly rare.

And all this when an entire generation of old people is thinking outside the box. They're finally saying, "Look. We don't want to spend a huge chunk of our life, 20+ years of retirement, just wasting away. We want to see the country, we want to travel, we want to live in a long house on wheels and play Pinochle at a miniature table with our friends, dangit!" And how are they rewarded? By the evil RV Parks who charge them their hard-earned cash for strips of gravel. Crud, even at a conservative rate of $30 a night, that's $900 a month!

Is there something I'm missing here?

[Blogging is real fun, because you can vent this stuff to an audience of unknown proportions, and perhaps your words will be read by someone who will correct you, in which case, awesome! A debate! Or maybe they'll agree and get out there and start an RV culture revolt. If the latter happens, call me up. I don't have the inclination to start a revolt myself, but I will bring poster board and markers.]